Reunions
by Otomos the Crazy Peridot
Summary: Reunions are nice, but they never last forever. Mystery Inc. decides to solve one more mystery before splitting up and returning to their normal lives again. Little do they know what more Fate has in store for them.


**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any character or anything from the Scooby Doo Franchise.**

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**A new fanfic? Yes. Yes it is. I want to just say that this takes place in the Scooby Doo universe that involves the movies (namely Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, and Cyber Chase). There's also another one that's important, but I'm going to let you figure which one it is. In any case, happy reading!**

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The Mystery Machine drove as fine as she always had before. It was amazing how Freddy kept it running so smoothly for so long, and without a single part of the van breaking or working improperly. Inside, everyone was just enjoying themselves. Freddy drove, of course. Velma and Daphne were sitting next to him, conversing about this and that. Scooby and Shaggy were in the back, making some impossibly large and ridiculous sandwich, to the surprise of no one. It was like they were teenagers again, just having fun.

They joked around, they laughed, they shared stories of what they had been up to before Fred brought the gang together again, and they talked about what they were planning to do when they split up again...Then it hit them. The next place they were going would be the last place they'd check out before returning to their normal lives. After that, no more meddling, no more investigations, no more mysteries. At least, not until they pick up that nostalgic spark again. It was there when they were kids, it was there when they were teenagers, and after a few years of being apart, the spark appeared again and lead them into their recent mysteries, and even some encounters with the supernatural.

It was fun while it lasted, but now the spark was dying out again. Each mystery became easier and easier, and the villains under the masks just became predictable. Don't take that the wrong way. They loved to help people and solve mysteries and catch the bad guys, but they had normal lives to get back to. Velma had to get back to her bookstore that she had a relative watch over while she was gone. Daphne and Freddy had to prepare for the second season of their show. Shaggy and Scooby...Well, they have to go job hunting again, or at least find something to do.

For a moment, the only thing that made a noise in that van was the 70s music that was Fred had playing. The atmosphere had become a little depressing, as everyone was hung up on the fact that they wouldn't see each other for quite a while after this.

It wasn't until Shaggy and Scooby started sobbing aloud that anyone even thought about changing the atmosphere. After taking a moment to think on the situation, the others looked at each other, and smiled. They assured the two of them that they'd all still stay in touch, and even promised them to have a pizza party before splitting up again. This instantly cheered them up to the point where they were actually cheering in the back of the van. After calming down, Shaggy lifted his end of the sandwich to take a bite of the delicious sandwich he and Scooby made. He ended up chomping down on air. He shook his head, and looked to find that Scooby had already eaten the entire thing in one go! The others snickered a bit at Shaggy's confusion.

The entire drive since then went back to its old fun atmosphere, albeit very slightly depressing.

It didn't take that long to make it to the haunted house. It wasn't that hard to find an old mansion that people stayed away from. Just follow the lightning bolts that flashed in the sky. The story with this one was that it was abandoned a long time ago, and that the sound of an organ could be heard every night. Whoever went into the house would not only hear the organ playing, but also the sound of maniacal laughter. If anyone stayed inside for too long, the spirits of the dead would reveal themselves and toss them about until they left. According to some people in town, the maniacal laughter came from the spirit of some old, wealthy member of the occult that died in his home during ritual. Others say that it was the spirit of a Civil War soldier who had wondrous musical talent, and was buried in the ground beneath the mansion.

Now, the Scooby Gang didn't really believe that these ghosts were behind everything, but after some of their recent mysteries, they still left it as a possibility. Either way, a few things were clear. They had to see it for themselves, and Scooby and Shaggy wanted nothing to do with it. Still, it was the last time they'd do something like this with the gang for a while, so they decided to go with them, despite their fears.

As they got closer to the mansion, the sound of the thunder got louder, and the lightning seemed so close to the building, that the fear of the building catching on fire rose in their minds. Velma assured them that everything would be alright, but that didn't stop them from being creeped out by the building itself. It was actually quite strange that they could never get used to spooky or decrepit places. These types of places always seemed to have that little something that gave the gang goosebumps.

The inside of the mansion was cold, almost as cold as it was outside. The place wasn't as much of a mess than they had thought. They expected a ransacked interior, with broken walls, ripped up curtains and couches, and the like. Instead, what they found was just a scene of somewhat old furniture being preserved by dust and spiderwebs. As they ventured through more the mansion, they found other rooms. There wasn't much that they haven't seem before. Unlit candelabras rested on old wooden desks and tables, large portraits of random people were hung up on the walls of the halls, so on and so forth.

The gang almost gave up on expecting something new to show up, until they encountered exactly what they wanted. It was a large large dining hall that looked to be completely trashed. It was like an earthquake had struck it. The room was so different from what they had seen so far that they had to take a moment to let it sink in, and in that moment, they heard it. The sound of an organ being played echoed throughout the house. It was loud, and yet it sounded hauntingly beautiful. Freddy looked to the others and grinned. To most, the sound of such organ music meant that whoever was playing it had a passion for it, and didn't just play it to send shivers down everyone's spines, but to Fred, it meant that hunt for clues had begun.

Much to the surprise of the others, Shaggy and Scooby had already went on their way. They knew they were going to split up for the search, and they just assumed that they were going to do their normal routine. This concerned Fred, because they'd been acting like this ever since the case with the computer virus. Truth be told,it was kind of weirding him out. He had been thinking about this on the way here, and it was true that they seldom split up in different ways. With that in mind, Fred thought that he could maybe change it up this time

"Hey, Velma." Whispered Freddy to his bespectacled friend. "You mind tagging along with them this time? They usually run into the bad guys, so you might be able to find clues more easily with them."

"Hm." Velma raised her brow and wore a bit of a grin. "Are you sure it's not because you want some 'alone time' with Daphne?"

Freddy blushed.

"No! I just thought-"

"Relax, Fred." Snickered Velma. "I'm just joking. I'll go keep an eye those two."

Fred sighed as Velma walked off to join Shaggy and Scooby.

...

Velma searched around to find Shaggy and Scooby. She thought she would find them in the kitchen, searching for some snacks or something, but to her surprise, they weren't there. She could have sworn that this would be the first place they'd be. She moved on, looking in just about every room she came across, but couldn't find them. Nor could she find anything that looked even remotely like a clue. The only thing she could work off of was the sound of the organ that was still being played. Maybe they had gone to look for it themselves? Velma thought it was unlikely, but maybe they found a trap door or something by accident.

Velma sighed as she checked yet a another room, only to find it empty. She had been spending the last half an hour searching for her friends and some clues. This mansion was huge. Stupidly huge. She actually wondered what the architect was thinking back when this place was built. Who would need this many rooms? Most of them were bedrooms, and empty ones at that. Few of them had more than a bed, a table, a chair, and drawer. She honestly couldn't understand who would use this house, and fir what.

Shaking her head, Velma neared the next room in the hall, hoping to have better luck this time around, but when she reached over to grab the handle, she stopped. She noticed that the organ had stopped playing. The haunting music was gone, and for a moment, silence was all that was left. Then a loud, maniacal laugh took the organ's place. It was so loud that everyone in the building, regardless of where they were, could hear it clearly. Looks like the townspeople weren't making any part of the story up.

The door in front of Velma suddenly opened, almost hitting her as it swung out. She staggered backwards out of surprise and lost her balance. She tried to grab onto something to stop herself from hitting the floor, but when she took hold of a candelabra, she felt it sink a bit. The wooden floor beneath her opened up, and she fell into the hole and onto a slide. The trap door closed as she was forced to descend.

The slide was surprisingly long, and it looped all around the place. It actually amazed Velma at how this thing was made, and she pondered why. Soon, she found herself at the end of the ride, and landed on the floor of a lit room. She looked around, and found that it was a bedroom of sorts. There was nothing out of the ordinary for a bedroom in an old mansion like this, but Velma wondered why this room was already lit. The first thought that crossed her mind was that the rumors about this place really were false, and that it was yet another guy in a costume. She almost sighed at the thought, but decided to just move on.

She inspected the room for clues, but nothing turned up. At least, not until she went to a closet door. As soon as she opened it, she was overwhelmed by a flood of paper. It was as if the entire closet was used to store them. Velma popped out of the giant pile, and held one of the sheets of paper up to inspect it. Despite almost being buried alive, she was actually happy to find them. These were the closest things to clues that she found this entire time.

Each and every one of sheets of paper had something on them, but they all seemed similar to each other. There were a few differences between them. Some were crossed out with a large "X", some seemed short or unfinished, and some had certain parts circled. Other than that, they were all papers with music notes written on them. Music sheets for the organ of course.

As if in response to Velma's finding of the music sheets, the organ was played again, this time accompanied by the laughter.

Elsewhere in the building, Freddy and Daphne were still inspecting the dining hall. They were still. Sifting through the mess for clues. They stopped when they heard the screaming of their friends. Shaggy and Scooby crashed into the other two, and all four of them found themselves on the floor in a momentary daze. It was at this moment that the music and laugh had started up again. The maniacal laugh was not alone this time. It was joined with the laughter of several others.

The four of them were speechless as they were lifted up off the floor. All around them, what they could only describe as "ghosts" started floating up through the floors, or phasing into their view, or (in their case) lifting them up into the air with crazy smiles on their faces. Needless to say, the four of them were scared. They were tossed from one spirit to another, over and over. It was like they were on a roller coaster with no seat belts, or even seats for that matter. The more they were tossed about, the louder the ghosts' laughs became.

Daphne and Freddy were stuck being tossed about in the middle of the room, but Shaggy and Scooby? They were being tossed toward the far end of the room. Eventually, they were tossed onto the floor. I front them, one last spirit arose. It grew larger and larger until it almost hit the high ceiling, the spirit faced away from the duo, and extended a see-through hand toward them. They shook with fear as the towering ghost placed them into its own clutches, and brought them to its face. It stared at them with large eyes, with dots for pupils. Its nose was akin to that of a skeleton's, just two holes where a normal human's would be. From its long, lipless slit of a mouth, the ghost spoke one word.

"Hi."

Shaggy and Scooby screamed at the top of their lungs, as they broke free of the ghost's clutch and started running in midair. They dashed toward the nearest exit out of that room, literally running through every laughing spirit in their way. They ran through the mansion's halls, screaming all the way. The ghosts didn't bother to follow. They focused on nothing but running away. They didn't even notice Velma, who chased after the two of them after they ran past her. She couldn't catch up with their speed, but she continued running after them anyway.

They continued to run deeper and deeper into the mansion. They took a moment to look behind and see if the ghosts were chasing them. This allowed them to run right into the room that housed the organ. As soon as they put their attention back to where they were running, they noticed a figure that was sitting on a bench between them and the instrument. They skidded to a halt right behind the figure, whose head turned to directly face them. It had the face of the towering ghost from before. And just like that ghost, it said,

"Hi!"

Shaggy and Scooby screamed again, running as fast as they could the way they came. Then, surprisingly, they suddenly froze in place mid-step, and then reversed like they were on a tape that was put on rewind. They faced the figure again, but this time they had a more casual sort of surprised look on their faces.

"P-Phantasma?"

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**Hi! Okay, so I have a lot of things to do (college stuff, video games, other fanfics that I'll make or continue since I left it hanging for a while, etc.), so I'm not gonna lie. I will not have a consistent upload schedule. But this is a fanfic that I want to proceed with, so I'm going to try to make chapters as quickly as possible. **

**However, I'm going to need some feedback from you all. Positive review or not, I don't care, because it'll help me either way.**

**More importantly, Thanks for reading! I've got this urge to write again, and I hope whatever became the end result was to your liking. **

**SEEYA'S!**


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